Unlike my previous posts essays on packing, this post is not about packing for a specific place. Of course, I was going to a specific place, but the information provided below is relatively generalizable. In this case, the specific place I was packing for was Midland, Texas where I would be meeting Clay for his 10-year high school reunion. I knew that from Houston the small regional airplane I would be on would not have overhead space for a rollerboard (plus I am short and have trouble getting anything into an overhead bin in the first place), so I wanted to pack in something smaller that would not have to be gate checked. Enter the Columbia bag:

So, how could I fit a long weekend's worth of clothes into this? First, I knew I would have to make intentional clothing choices. Ultimately, what saved the most space with my clothes was wearing each pair of pants twice and only packing one pair of shoes (I wore a second pair onto the plane). I ended up packing:

Black pants (worn on plane)

Gray and coral shirt (worn on plane)

Black cardigan (worn on plane)

Gray and black striped shirt

Jeans

Purple shirt

Brown sleeveless shirt

Coral cardigan

Black shoes (worn on plane)

White shoes

Related accessories

PJs, etc.

The white pair of shoes went on the bottom and everything else, once rolled, easily fit in on top of that.

To ensure my cosmetics would fit, I had found most things I needed in travel size and of course packed all my liquids in a separate quart-sized baggie to pull out at airport security.

Once I squeezed in my flat iron and hairbrush, everything just fit into the bag.

Packing this way was the perfect solution for my weekend away. Plus, I got to feel quite impressed with my packing skills each time someone asked me, "Where is your bag?" as I carried it on my shoulder! Little did I know that I could have really used a raincoat...